136 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



tained from the establishment of the Granges in the various 

 States. The National Grange, however, expressly stipu 

 lated that, if the fees did not meet the sum named, he 

 should have no claim on that organization, and that it would 

 assume the payment of no expenses whatever. 



Hopeful and enthusiastic, Mr. Kelley immediately resigned 

 his clerkship in the Post-office Department. Being fur 

 nished with a general letter of introduction, Harrisburg, 

 Pa., was selected as the first point for trial. His ticket 

 bought, he found himself with but two dollars and a half in 

 currency of the United States, for expenses. How many 

 men would have left a lucrative office, and thus launched out 

 upon an unknown sea, on a voyage which might eventuate 

 in the wreck of his fondest hopes? He carried nothing 

 with him but the best wishes and earnest prayers of the 

 brotherhood left behind. 



THE FIRST FOUR DISPENSATIONS ISSUED. 



Armed with the necessary power to grant dispensations 

 for the organization of subordinate Granges, Mr. Kelley ar 

 rived at Harrisburg, where he enlisted the co-operation of a 

 sufficient number of persons to form a Grange, and there 

 the first dispensation was granted. 



Proceeding from this point, he traveled on, talking, 

 wherever opportunity offered, with the farmers whom he 

 met; here and there meeting with hearty encouragement, 

 but, in the majority of cases, finding the farmers afflicted 

 with that species of conservatism which looks with doubt 

 upon any thing that seems like breaking out of old ruts. 

 They did not like to take stock in any chimerical venture, 

 content to suffer the ills they had rather than fly to those 

 they knew not of. 



